Gov. Jerry Brown is coming off a year of political success in which he delivered on a promise to persuade voters to raise taxes and made headway on other long-standing problems, such as runaway public pension liabilities.

An aide to former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said he was so taken by Lance Armstrong's first memoir of battling back from cancer to win the Tour de France multiple times that he immediately read it “cover to cover” and recommended it to several friends.

During her time in Iraq, Alma Felix would see her fellow female soldiers leave the Army installations where she worked at a desk job and head into combat with their male counterparts. But many returned home feeling that few knew of their contributions.